Hyperlinks and Criminal
Law

- Can linking bring you into prison?

The founder of a German online
protest forum against web censorship (http://censorship.odem.org) was sentenced
by the district court in Stuttgart for linking to e.g. one of the world's most
popular Internet destinations -- Don Black's Stormfront.com, based in the United
States. He was found guilty of "aiding and abetting access" to material
published by people "inciting racial hatred [and] denying the Holocaust" - a
criminal offense in Germany.

Freude tried
hard to convince the court that the Nazi links were merely
documenting part of a website-blocking case. To block access
is the wrong way to fight Neo-nazism, he argued. It could even
endanger the constitutional right to freedom of information,
since blocking lists might grow once the precedent was set.

October 8, 2004: Ermert,
Monika,
German fined for publishing neo-Nazi web links, The Register:
"Linking to neo-Nazi websites in Germany can cost you dear. The founder of a
German online protest forum - http://censorship.odem.org/ - against web
censorship was sentenced by the district court in Stuttgart today for
linking to two neo-Nazi sites and a bad-taste website hosted in the US."

A Stuttgart appeals court has
ruled that media designer Alvar Freude is not guilty of aiding and abetting in
incitement to hatred and violence against minority groups by linking to e.g.
documents that deny the Holocaust. According to the judges Freude's
reporting about Nazi web sites, which caused the district government of
Dusseldorf to file charges, constitutes documentation of historical events.

s it illegal to link to an anti-racist website like Stop
the Hate
that contains links to websites operated by racist groups? In February 2000,
Switch Professor Stricker was accused of spreading and promoting racist
propaganda. Criminal proceedings were commenced.
In September 2002 Professor Stricker was acquitted.

About a
police investigation in the United Kingdom because of a link to a poem, that is
illegal in England. The poem was banned under English Blasphemy law.

Black,
Jane,Link
to explicit poem deemed OK, CNet:
"Police in the United Kingdom have decided not to bring charges against the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement, whose Web site provided a link to a controversial
poem."

In
India a complaint was filed against six directors of Rediff’s search engine,
which gave access to pornographic material.

December
4, 2000: Joseph, Manu,
Porn
a Thorn for Indian Portal, Wired:"In a court order that could have serious legal ramifications in India, a judge in Pune has put six directors of a premier portal called Rediff.com on trial for "giving access to pornographic material."

October
2, 2000: Joshi, Manoj,
India
Wrestles With Net Porn, Wired:"Attorney Rohas Nagpal, working on behalf of law student Abhinav, claims that Rediff.com, a premier Indian site listed on the Nasdaq, can be punished under section 292 of the Indian Penal Code because its search engine gives access to millions of pornographic
sites."

According to
an Osaka District Court ruling, a webmaster linking to a website that is in
violation of the law, can be charged with aiding and abetting the crime. Even if
he is unaware of the content of the linked page, the decision would hold him
liable.

June
2000: Scuka, Daniel,
Japan
Walks Where the US Fears to Tread, Japan Inc.:"Japan has again chosen the path less traveled by in this country's quest to resolve issues of law and the Internet: a recent Osaka District Court ruling found that, in some cases, links from one site to another may be considered a breach of
law."

April
7, 2000: Tanaka, Kazumi,
Web
Links Can Be Considered Illegal, Osaka Court Judgement Says, Asia Biz
Tech:"A landmark verdict handed down on March 30 by the Osaka District Court states that, under certain sets of conditions, links used to connect one Web page to another could be considered an infringement of the
law."

Linking Cases

There have been a
lot of lawsuits concerning
linking, framing and search
engine issues in the last years.
In this section you'll find
short introductions into the
different cases and links to
news articles about it.